My delicious tag wordle

Does it show that I am a .net developer with a python deviancy?

Typemock Isolator Plug (to get a free license and try out something other than Moq)

Programming Visual Basic applications?

Typemock have released a new version of their unit testing tool, Typemock Isolator 5.2. This version includes a new friendly VB.NET API which makes Isolator the best Isolation tool for unit testing A Visual Basic (VB) .NET application.

Isolator now allows unit testing in VB or C# for many ‘hard to test’ technologies such as SharePoint, ASP.NET MVC, partial support for Silverlight, WPF, LINQ, WF, Entity Framework, WCF unit testing and more.

Note that the first 25 bloggers who blog this text in their blog and tell us about it, will get a Free Full Isolator license (worth $139). If you post this in a VB.NET dedicated blog, you'll get a license automatically (even if more than 25 submit) during the first week of this announcement.

Go ahead, click the following link for more information on how to get your free license.

Evil Extension Method, or just handy?

 

I just realized I can have the following extension method:

   1: public static class StringExtensions

   2: {

   3:     public static bool HasContent(this string self)

   4:     {

   5:         return !string.IsNullOrEmpty(self);

   6:     }

   7: }

And then use it like this:

   1: [TestFixture]

   2: public class StringExtensionMethodsTest

   3: {

   4:     [Test]

   5:     [Category("Unit")]

   6:     public void TestStringHasContentWorksForNullStrings()

   7:     {

   8:         string s = null;

   9:         Assert.IsFalse(s.HasContent());

  10:     }

  11:  

  12:     [Test]

  13:     [Category("Unit")]

  14:     public void TestStringHasContentWorksForEmptyStrings()

  15:     {

  16:         string s = "";

  17:         Assert.IsFalse(s.HasContent());

  18:     }

  19:  

  20:     [Test]

  21:     [Category("Unit")]

  22:     public void TestStringHasContentWorksForStringsWithContent()

  23:     {

  24:         string s = "content";

  25:         Assert.IsTrue(s.HasContent());

  26:     }

  27: }

The interesting part is that a method call on a null object for an extension method works, which allows for the s.HasContent() idiom, instead of string.HasContent(s).

My question is the following: is relying on such “detail” good, in the way that it allows for less line noise and cleaner code, or bad for violating the idea that you can call a method on a null object and not get an exception?

I’d love to hear opinions on this.

2 more apps I end up installing on all computers I use.

Foldershare, set to sync my utils folder, which includes putty, teracopy, some gnu command line utils, a couple of scripts to start and stop services, .net reflector, keepass binary, notepad2, and some other portable apps that I end up collecting over time.

Dropbox, mostly for the public folder. The explorer/finder integration is a wonderful piece of magic. Dropping a file on the public folder and using the "Copy the public link" item on the context menu ended up being my favorite way to share files with the world.

First shot at a couchdb installer on windows

Disclaimer: this is for the brave folks who wish to try things out. So far I've only tested the installer on my own machine and on a clean Windows XP vmware image.

Now for the running bits: here's a first try at getting a workable couchdb installer on Windows.

There were some instructions down at the wiki on how to get all the bits and bobs running together, but parts of it required a C compiler and some rather tedious setup on part of the user. It was also a bit frail, as noted by me trying for a couple of afternoons to get the unit tests to pass.

The biggest problem was that Spidermonkey must be compiled in a specific way (one that wasn't apparent to me at first), which I dismissed at first because the blog containing the steps was down. Also, one must use lowercase paths on the config file, otherwise erlang will choke when trying to open the database files.

The next step would be to create a shortcut on the start menu, get some sensical text on the installer, do some error checking to find out if the prerequisites are installed, and create an uninstaller.

For now, here's the installer for the world to try. Leave a comment if you find a problem or have a suggestion.

Thank you guys!

My great friends and colleagues at weListen just offered my these two wonderful sets of DVDs for my birthday:

These are Q&A sessions Kevin Smith does at packed theaters with thousands of people, and where he talks about everything and anything. It includes some inside jokes for his Askewniverse fans, and each disk is about an hour and a half of him just having fun with the audience. And that's the brilliance of it. It really is just a dude with some great stories having fun with people who dig his work, and he just goes with the flow, having people from the audience up on the stage for whatever reason it is at the time, or going on a binge discussing Prince's flamboyance.

For anyone who's a fan of Kevin Smith's movies, these dvds are must see. And I really thank the guys at work for the gift. :D

Unexpected change

Got home at 11pm. General slouch mode before bedtime engaged. Open firefox for one last news feed round and look at a large change on iGoogle.

My iGoogle page is "designed" to fit on one 20" screen at 1650x1050 or thereabouts. I want to open it, scan it quickly for any big news and move on. Now it takes two screens with a short description for each feed item (as most of the widgets are based on newspapers and tv channels' feeds), which kind of defeats the purpose. Also, the tabs moved to the left, which may be a good option for today's wide screens, but looks a bit odd having lots of negative space on a vertical bar.

Thankfully a quick trip to the tab's settings shows me a way to remove the new feed behavior and return the page to a more sane, no scroll, quick scan mode. It also shows a manual backup for the iGoogle page, and export settings. May pay someday to add these settings to the backup jobs at home.